A new group initiative has been set up to promote remote working and show how it can increase productivity and well-being, save time and money, as well as help save the environment.
The Anywhere Working initiative is run by a consortium of organisations including Microsoft, Business in the Community (BITC), Nokia, Regus, Nuffield, Vodafone UK and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).
As well as providing tips and tricks to work smarter, the initiative website also includes a handy savings calculator, which will tell you how much time, money and CO2 you could save by working from home. Enter your home and work postcodes, and it will calculate the distance between them. You can then add how much time and money you spend each day travelling to work, and how many days you intend to work from home, in order to show you your weekly, monthly and annual savings, like this:
The savings shown would happen if I were to work from home just once a week, instead of making the 4 mile round trip.
Once you’ve calculated your own savings, you can then pledge your support for the campaign and sign up to receive offers and giveaways. All you’ve got to do then is convince your boss to let you work from home; point them in the direction of the Anywhere Working website case studies to give them a few good reasons.
And of course, if you’re in London, then the trial of getting to work whilst the Olympic Games are on over the summer will probably provide the biggest excuse to work from home that you’ll ever have.